Developer could fight Branchburg's rejection of plan to build 292 residences in North Branch

BRANCHBURG — Recent flooding in North Branch underscores residents’ concerns about a plan to create 292 condominiums, apartments and townhouses on 45.8 acres bordered by Route 22, Easton Turnpike (Route 614) and Station Road. The township Zoning Board of Adjustment has rejected an application for variance relief that would have allowed the project to go forward.

A resolution passed at the board’s Sept. 6 meeting memorializes a July vote that denied the application by Advance at Branchburg II, LLC for a variance to build “Signature Place” — a residential development of 28 multi-family dwellings, including 59 “affordable housing” units, a pool and a club house. The site is zoned for commercial and industrial use and an earlier proposal for an office complex there had already been approved.

Advance has 45 days from the date of the resolution to initiate Superior Court action against the decision, according to Christopher Erd, board chairman.

The July 20 decision came nearly a year to the day after the board began public hearings on the application, on July 21, 2010. The board held 10 such meetings during the ensuing 12 months.

The board found the proposed 292-unit development “relatively high density or high density by Branchburg standards,” particularly because the site is across Route 28 (Easton Turnpike) from single family homes that constitute the “historic North Branch Hamlet.” The potential impact of the development on the hamlet was a significant factor in the board’s denial, according to its Sept. 6 resolution.

The site is comprised of wetlands and steep slopes along the stream corridor and floodplain of the nearby North Branch of the Raritan River. The board’s concerns about those issues were underscored during flooding that followed the rain dropped by tropical storm Lee, which hit the area the same week the board passed the resolution.

Station Road “became a river” during the floods, according to Branchburg Mayor Thomas Young, and water from the river backed up across North Branch.

Easton Turnpike resident Tom Carran told the Township Committee on Sept. 12 that his was the last house on the street that didn’t have water coming up through the first floor. “With 300 condos on that hill going into a pipe behind my house (there were going to be) problems,” Carran said.

The board “did a great job” in denying the application, he told the committee.

Advance submitted a “bifurcated” application, meaning it asked the board to decide whether the “concept” of a housing development in a I-2 zone was acceptable before considering details such as the adequacy of proposed parking, the fate of an old cemetery on the property, traffic, lighting, landscaping and flooding.

Advance argued that, with the inclusion of the affordable housing units, the development should be recognized as an “inherently beneficial use,” which grants the application special status. The development, which would constitute about 30% of the I-2 zone in the area, was a better use for the property than any of uses actually permitted in the zone, the company argued.

The board disagreed. It found that the proposed development wasn’t consistent with the town’s Master Plan. Moreover, the developer’s request that it allow such a large housing development in the town’s industrial/commercial zone essentially constituted “‘re-zoning,’ or a ‘usurpation of the Governing Body’s power to zone,’” the board said.

Having decided that “the public good would be negatively impacted and substantially impaired should the proposed development be permitted by variance,” the board denied the application. Advance has until Oct. 28 to respond in Superior Court.